Combined shopping bag and handbag



Sept. 28, 1948. w. P. GIBSON COMBINED SHOPPING BAG AND HANDBAG FiledMarch 5, 1948 INVENTOR. hJl-umw PFTRICK G Patented Sept. 28, 1948 g.

COMBINED SHOPPING BAG AND HANDBAG William Patrick Gibson, Plainfleld, N.1., asslgnor to Holdall Bag Company, Inc., New York, N. Y.

Application March 5, 1948, Serial No. 13,150 1 Claim. (01. 150-437) 1This invention relates to bags, and more particularly, is concerned withconvertible bags of the typewhich can be changed by folding from a largeto a small size or vice versa.

It is an object of the invention to provide a foldably convertible bagof the character described which can be quickly and easily convertedfrom its large to its small size and back again.

It is another object of the invention to provide a foldably convertiblebag which can be manufactured at a low cost and which, when fullyfolded, is not unduly bulky and closely simulates a conventionalpocketbook.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a foldablyconvertible bag which may be reduced to its small size with a minimumnumber of folds.

It is an additional object of the invention to provide a foldablyconvertible bag in which one or more special pockets are incorporated insuch fashion that they are convenient to use when the bag either is infolded or unfolded condition.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a foldablyconvertible bag which, when fully folded has no gaping openings toindicate that the bag is anything else but a pocketbook.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in part willbe pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction,combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will beexemplified in the bag hereinafter described and of which the scope ofapplication will be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of the variouspossible embodiments of the invention:

Fig. l is a front view of a fully folded bag con-- structed inaccordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view of said folded bag, but indicating in dot-and-dashlines the appearance of the bag at the first step of itsunfoldinge'xpansion to a larger size;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showing the bag after the firststep of its unfolding expansion;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the bag after the'secondstep of its unfolding expension; and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the bag as it appears when fullyunfolded.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral l denotesa bag made in accordance with my invention. For convenience of 2description, the construction of said bag will be outlined withreference to Fig. 5. Said bag comprises a long, broad fabric strip whichis doubled over to form two side panels l2, I! which are stitchedtogether along the side edges i6, i8 of the bag and are joined by abottom fold IS. The upper edges 20, 22 of the side panels are providedwith suitable handles, such as the strap handles 24, 26. The ends of thehandle are secured, as

by stitching to the upper edges of the bag. For a reason which willlater be apparent the ends of the handles are located at points spacedinwardly from the side edges of the bag an amount not exceeding, andpreferably slightly less than, onequarter of the'width of the sidepanels.

One side panel, e. g. the panel I2, has permanently secured to it, as bya line of stitching 28, a cover panel of flexible material. Thisflexible material, although it may be of any type well known to the art,preferably is of the kind having at least one surface thereof resemblingthe exterior surface of a conventional handbag.

- Thus, the cover panel may be made, out of a plastic material like avinyl copolymer or any other well known synthetic plastic, and theexterior surface thereof finished to resemble leather or fabric. Theheight of the cover panel is slightly more than double the height of thebag when in its fully folded form, and the width of said panel that theside and cover panels are'free from one another except along theboundary of the cover panel. However, the line of stitchicng 28 does notjoi the cover and side'panels to one another along their upper edgesbetween the two ends of the associated strap handle. These edge portionsof 'the two panels have attached thereto in some suitable manner, as forexample by stitching, two mating slide fastener stringers 32, 34 whichare provided with a conventional slider 36 adapted to mesh or unmesh theslide fastener elements ofsaid stringers. It will be appreciated thatwhen the slider is pulled toward the permanent'bottom stop 313 accesswill be had thereby to the compartment between the cover and sidepanels. Moreover, this access is limited toslightly less than one halfthe height of the cover panel by a line of stitching. 40 parallel to theupper and lower edges of the cover panel and extending between the sideedges of said panel along a zone spaced from the edge 22 a distanceequal to the height of the fully folded bag.

The bag is provided with three sets of rapidly attachable detachingmeans of the type which secure local attachment. kind and which ispreferably employed in my invention is snap fasteners. One set of snapfasteners consists of the male and the female halves 42, 44. These aredisposed in vertical registry adjacent the side edges of the coverpanel,

A typical means of this the two halves being disposed equidistantly fromthe line of stitchirg 4D. The second set of snap fasteners constitutesthe male and female halves 46, 48 which are disposed in Verticalregistry adjacent the other side edge of the cover panel. The snapfasteners of the second set are horizontally registered with the snapfasteners of the first set. The third set of snap fasteners comprisesthe male and female halves 50, 52. Said last pair of snap fastenerslikewise are in vertical registry. However, they are not both located onthe cover panel. Only the lower snap fastener half 50 is disposed onsaid panel, being located midway between the side edges of the coverpanel 30. The other snap fastener 52 of this pair is on the innersurface of the side panel l2. Attention is directed to the fact that thefirst and second set of snap fasteners are located between the ends ofthe handles and the side edges of the cover panel.

The reason for the particular arrangement of the snap fasteners andhandles and for the size and location of the cover panel now will beapparent from the following description of the manner in which the bagis folded to reduce it from the large size shown in Fig. 5 to thecompact size shown in Fig. 1.

The bag first is folded about a horizontal line 54 (see Fig. 4) which isslightly above the bottom edge 56 of the panel 3,0. This line will takeon the form of a crease after the bag once is folded by the manufactureror user, or, if desired, a permanent crease may be formed in the bagalong this line in any manner well known in the art. The distance fromthe fold line 54 to the top edges 20, 22 of the bag is double the heightof the fully folded bag. The distance from the fold line 54 to thebottom edge IQ of the bag is slightly less than one-third of the fullheight of the side panels. The fold about the line 54 should be made insuch fashion that the surfaces of the bag brought into contact by makingthe fold are those of the side panel M, i. e., the side panel which doesnot have the cover panel thereon.

It is pointed out that the fold line 54 is disposed betweenthe'snapfastener half 50 on the one hand and the pair of snap fastenerhalves 42, 48 on the other, whereby, after the fold is made, the snapfastener half 50 is on one side of the bag, and the snap fastener halves42, 48 are on the other side. The snap fastener half 52 is spaced fromthe fold line 54 a distance equal to the space from its mating half 52to the top edge 22 of the side paneli2.

Next the two lateral portions of the bag are folded over on to the sideof the bag having the already folded bottom portion thereon. At thistime the bag, will have the appearance shown in Fig. 3. These secondfold-s are made about the vertical fold lines 58;" 60. Each of saidlines is disposed between one end of a handle and the associated set ofvertically registered snap fastener halves so that'when this secondfolding has half 52, if the upper central portion 62 of the panel M bedisregarded or folded down as seen in Fig. 3.

The third or last fold takes place about the horizontal fold line 64midway between the fold line 54 and the upper edge of the bag. Inasmuchas the snap fastener halves 42, 50 and 48 are spaced from the fold line54 a distance equal, respectively, to the spacing of the upper snapfastener halves 44, 52 and 46 from said fold line, the various halves ofeach set of snap fasteners will, upon this last folding be in registryand opposition (the portion 62 having been folded down), so that the twohalves of each set can be detachably secured and hold the bag in itsfully folded position shown in Fig. 1.

In Figs. 2, 3 and 4 I have indicated by arrows the directions in whichthe various portions of the bag are unfolded when the bag is beingexpanded.

It will be noted that when the bag is folded, the line of stitching 40is at the bottom of the bag, coincident with the fold line 64, so thatthe compartment to which access is had through the opened slide fasteneris limited both by the bottom of the bag and by the stitching 40. Italso will b noted that, inasmuch as the cover panel 30 is slightly morethan twice the size or the fully folded bag, the edges of the panel areinfolded so that the bag will simulate a conventional hand- It thus willbe seen that I have provided a bag which achieves the several objects 01my invention and is well adapted to meet the conditions of practicaluse.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention,and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth,it will be understoodthat all matter contained herein is to beinterpreted as illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent:

A foldable convertible bag comprising two coextensive side panels joinedto one another along the side and bottom edges of the bag, a pair ofhandles, one associated with each of the upper edges of the side panels,a flexible cover panel superimposed upon one of said side panels, theside edges of said cover panel being disposed between the side edges ofthe bag and the ends of the handles and the bottom edge of the coverpanel being spaced from the bottom edge-of the bag, the width of saidcover panel being in excess of the width of the folded bag and theheight of the cover panel being in excess of twice the height of thefolded bag, the upper edge of said cover panel being in registry withthe upper edge of the side panel on which it is disposed, said bag beingadapted to be folded to a smaller size by folding the side and coverpanels first near the bottom and then near the side edges of the coverpanel and then by folding the side and cover panels in half parallel tothe upper edges of the side panels, means to detachably secure thefolded portions of the bag together, stitching to secure the peripheryof the cover panel to its associated 5 side panel except between theends or the handles, and means to detachably attach the remainder of thecover panel to the registered edges of the side panel along theirlengths.

WILLIAM PATRICK GIBSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the tile ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Number Berlrowltz Aug. 24, 1926 Number 31,606,107 1,719,455 1,730,603 5 1,990,360 2,036,326

Number 10 1 254,847 306,267

- Great Britain Feb. 21, 1020

